The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1887-05-21

Letter in the Philadslphia News.

Letter IN the fnllauo1pnla news.
The slaughter of the blacks and
their retaliation on the miners have
kept Kimberley in a continual fer
ment for the last three months, and
have already been of serious injury
to the diamond settlement, a. we'll
as far more destructive of human
life than is acknowledged here, or
than the outside world has any idea
of. Not since the mines were discov-
cred in 1857 have they been more
crowded with adventures from all
parts of the world than this winter.
The number of diamonds sold to the
United States and to dealers known
to supply the American market has
been less than usual, but demand
for the European and Asiastic buy
ers has seemed to increase. Since
the troubles with the natives began,
early in January, however, dealers
have been more wary in coming,
for the journey through the brush
from the coast has been in many
cases fatal to the white adventures.
In many others they lost their
lives before they had been two
weeks in the diggings.
The negroes found here by the
first diamond seekers were nomin-
ally independent, but more or less
in bondage to the Beers. who
frowned down further white settle
ment. The Boer Verbal, who
bought the "Star of South Africa" /"
the first diamond found in Kimber-
ley, from the native who picked it
up, gave the man 500 sheep and
horses, quite as much to buy his
silence as to purchase the stone.
But the rush began in less than a
month afterward, and by the fall
thousands of white men-despera-
does, gamblers, "chevaliers of in
dustry" from the capitals of
Europe and disappointed gold
seekers from California and Aus
tralia crowded into the valley of
the Vaal and began ransacking the
peculiar soapstone formations
which distinguished these from any
other diamond mines in the world.
For these rough men, who treated
them often as brutes, the blacks
soon acquired a most intense aver
sion. They refused to do work OF
any kind for the miners, who
would sometimes seize a native,
keep him captive in one of their
huts, and compel him at the point
of pistol, to do the cooking, wash
ing and other menial work for q
dozen or two of rough whites, who
would "spur him up" as they put
it, occasionally by firing off pistols
over his head or rapping his
knuckles with the handles of theil
clasp-knives.
February 5 Delvin, miner from
Liverpool, while out hunting with
three comrades, came across
band of natives and carried off ONE
of them to their cabins as a slave
They lived some distance from any
other miners, toward the hills te
the northwest of the town, ane
nothing was known here of theil
adventure. The next morning
Delvin was found in the door o
his cabin with a spear stuck clear
through him, while the other two
Law, almost dead from loss of blood
on the floor behind him, one with
spear in his side and the othe
pinned to the plank bed he hat
been sleeping on by an assaga
through the neck. The black slav
was nowhere to be seen.
When the news was brought t.
Kimberley the excitement was tire
mendsus. By noon some sevent..
armed miners were galloping alon
the trail of the band of natives VIII
had evidently made the rescue am
butchered Devlin. After fifteel
miles hard riding tho blacks wer
overtaken in q gorge that run ab
ruptly into the Vaal, and there, be
tween the pistols of the miners an
the boiling current which runs ver,
! swiftly over the most precipltou
part of the bed of the Vaal, NOR
than forty of the natives lost thel
lives. It is said that many wer
. ridden into the river by main force
and the bodies of others who ha
{ been shot down were thrown
and swept away. Nobody know
lust how many of them were killet
/! but there was enough slaughter
enrage the natives all up and dow
the Vaal valley. i,
A general rally of the BLACK
. followed from the mountains MT
miles around. One or two Of tt
3 minor chiefs, notably Suba, form
1 allv declared . war of extermln!
}, ton against all the whites in IL
= country. The number Of neg
warriors who swarmed arour
Kimberley could not have bee
. less than 45O. Some few Of the
were armed with pistols, but
most cases tho assagai and DO
- .rd .rrowa wero their only wea